Rex Harvey, three Europeans in race for WMA presidency
Rex Harvey of Ohio, our former decathlon star, has thrown his hat in the ring for the presidency of World Masters Athletics, he’s informed me. The vote will come in the General Assembly at Lahti, Finland, in 2009 — midway through the World Masters Athletics Championships. They’ll pick a successor to Cesare Beccalli, who died last December. The acting WMA president, Monty Hacker of South Africa, has said he won’t run for a full term. But three Europeans will join the race, according to a post by Annette and Robert Koop of Germany. That might be good news for Rex.
Germany’s Dieter Massin, who on Tuesday was re-elected head of the European Vetarans Athletic Association, made a pitch to delegates at the Eurovets meet in Ljubljana, Slovenia, to stick together and elect a European to lead WMA.
Massin called for “the unity of the Europeans, especially in the (Lahti) elections,” he was quoted as saying.
But what if the Euros split the vote?
According to the Koops’ site, three Euro-gents are running for WMA president:
— Serge Becker of Belgium
— Georgios Konstantopoulos, a runner in his early 50s and chairman of the Greek Masters Athletics Association
— And 37-year-old Austrian Percy Hirsch, organizer of the 2006 Linz world masters indoor championships.
Expect one or two to drop out between now and summer 2009, since Dieter knows Rex Harvey is well-liked and respected (he’s been a WMA vice president for stadia meets for years) and has a high-profile position as a member of the IAAF Veterans Committee. My sources say Georgios is favored by Massin because Georgios provides office space and a secretary to Massin.
But Rex also is mindful of history. In 1997, American Al Sheahen ran for WMA president against Sweden’s Torsten Carlius and was steamrolled by Eurovotes.
Still, change is in the air. And many European delegates might like to see WMA clean up its act, especially in the wake of several poorly managed world indoor and outdoor meets.
Rex tried his mightiest to bring professionalism to the Riccione outdoor and Clermont-Ferrand indoor meets, but local organizers insisted on doing things their way, basically spitting in Rex’s face (and others).
They screwed up so bad that WMA basically apologized on its Web site for mismanagement.
Others could enter the race for prez. Maybe Stan Perkins of Australia, who lost to Beccalli in 2005.
Much more to be said on this subject, including: Go, Rex! He’d make a superb WMA president.
3 Responses
So…how does the voting process work? Does the U.S. get a number of delegate votes? If so, how many? What countries can Rex expect to ally with him and cast their votes his way?
The WMA Constitution spells out how delegates are apportioned:
(b) At the General Assembly, each Affiliate shall be entitled to one delegate and also one additional delegate for each 100 of its competitors in the last three WMA World Championships Stadia (excluding the current Championships), but no Affiliate shall be entitled to more than five delegates. The word “competitor” shall mean competitors registered as entered and fully paid up regardless of whether they start their events or not.
(c) Members of the Council and aforesaid delegates shall have each only one vote and may not vote on behalf of absentees. The Presiding Officer shall also have an additional vote to break a tied vote. Voting by proxy is not allowed.
In practice, the USA gets three or four delegates. We generally vote with Canada and some Oceania countries as a bloc.
Good luck to Rex Harvey!!!
Linda
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